What to do if a Tick Bites You and How to Protect You and Your Fur Babies

Tick Season Is Starting Earlier | Lisa Schneiderman on Lyme Awareness for Pet Owners

In this episode of What The Morgs? Podcast, host Britt Girvan sits down with the producer of What The Morgs? Podcast Lisa Schneiderman to share a terrifying experience after a trip to Central Oregon led to the discovery of nine ticks on Lisa’s two Australian shepherds over the course of nine days. Together, they discuss the emotional toll of navigating potential tick-borne illness exposure, the growing risks associated with Lyme disease, and the importance of proactive prevention for both pets and humans. This conversation offers practical education, personal insight, and an important reminder that tick exposure can happen anywhere.

Topics Discussed

• Lisa Schneiderman’s experience finding nine ticks on her dogs after a trip to Central Oregon and the emotional impact it had on her as a pet owner.

• How tick season is starting earlier due to warmer temperatures and why Lyme disease awareness is becoming increasingly important on the West Coast.

• The importance of tick checks, proper tick removal, testing ticks for disease, and monitoring pets for symptoms after exposure.

• Tick prevention strategies for dogs and humans, including sprays, preventative medications, tick mitts, and post-hike routines.

• Common misconceptions about ticks, Lyme disease, and the risks pets face from tick-borne illnesses.

Lisa Schneiderman’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaschneiderman/ 

Tick Mitt Website: https://tickmitt.co

This podcast is a dedicated space for those impacted by Lyme and Morgellons disease—offering real conversations, shared experiences, and guidance for anyone seeking clarity, connection, and hope.

About What The Morgs? Podcast:

What The Morgs? is a podcast for people navigating Lyme and Morgellons disease. Hosted by Britt Girvan, the show is built on a mission to support, educate, and empower those affected—turning personal struggle into shared strength and purpose.

What The Morgs? Website: https://whatthemorgs.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, I'm Britt Gervin, host of What the Morgs podcast, and I am so happy that you're here. This podcast is dedicated to raising awareness for both Lyme and Morgellan's disease. I promise to give you authentic conversation, lived experiences, and expert interviews with people in the medical community. I'm so grateful that you're here. Thank you so much for tuning in. Welcome to another episode of What the Morgues Podcast. Today I'm sitting here with my friend and producer of What the Morgues Podcast, Lisa Schneiderman, who traveled to Central Oregon in mid-March. And when she returned, she found nine ticks over nine days on her Australian Shepherds, Miko and Ollie. That must have been so terrifying for you. It was.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

It was probably one of the most traumatic experiences of my life with these dogs. Decided to go to Central Oregon to visit a dear friend of mine, and I was there for about a week. Went to Camp Sherman, Matoles River. Beautiful. This was beginning to mid-March, so neither one of us thought that it was tick season. Yeah. It took nine days to find all of them. And by the time I found the rest of them, they were engorged. I didn't know that if a tick falls off and it's a female, it can lay a thousand eggs.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Yes, it can.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

A thousand eggs.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

A thousand. What? According to the Center for Disease Control website, in the U.S., about 31 million people are bitten each year by ticks. Tick bites are common enough that ER visits spike every spring and summer, with recent data showing the highest levels since 2017. Ticks are found in every US state and commonly affect pets as well. The CDC specifically emphasizes routine tick prevention for pets, indicating widespread exposure risk. Tick bites can transmit multiple diseases andor conditions such as Lyme disease and other coinfections. There are around 476,000 Americans treated every year for Lyme disease. The Charles E. Holman Foundation tells a different story. Number of Lyme cases are increasing rapidly, as are the cases of Morgelin's disease. Estimated over 1 million people affected by Lyme worldwide. Morgellan's skin symptoms occur in 6%, so that translates to 60,000 people affected by Morgelins worldwide annually. I suspect the real numbers are even much higher since we know that sadly most cases continue to go undiagnosed andor misdiagnosed. There are many reputable labs that can test your tick to see whether or not it carries disease such as Lyme. According to TIC Report, tick bites on the human body, 16.09% are found on the head, 12.61% on the upper leg, 10.82% on the back, and 9.75% on the lower leg. High tick season is generally from April to October, but due to climate change, we're experiencing much warmer temperatures, and tick season started earlier this year. Pets are at the same risk to contract Lyme disease and Morgellan's disease, among many other tick-borne illnesses. So there's a myth that the West Coast doesn't really see as many ticks as the East Coast. The East Coast is known for tons more than what we have here on the West Coast, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't protect ourselves. My guest today proves it. Hi, and welcome to another episode of What the Morgues Podcast. Today I'm sitting here with my friend and producer of What the Morgugs podcast, Lisa Schneiderman, who traveled to Central Oregon in mid-March. And when she returned, she found nine ticks over nine days on her Australian Shepherds, Miko and Ollie. Welcome, Lisa. That must have been so terrifying for you. It was.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

It was probably one of the most traumatic experiences of my life with these dogs, and I've had them for almost six years. I'm so happy to be here though. I'm really happy to be able to share the story and hopefully it'll help, you know, everybody else who has fur babies.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Well, thank you for being here. If you could maybe walk us through your experience in Central Oregon that you had as it relates to the ticks that you found on the dogs.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Yeah. So I decided to go to Central Oregon to visit a dear friend of mine. And I was there for about a week and we went to Camp Sherman, Matoles River. Beautiful. And I've been there millions of times as a kid, and it was so fun to go back. And you know, this was beginning to mid-March. So neither one of us thought that it was tick season yet. And so I normally am prepared with tick season. I've always had them on Semperico Trio and I spray them. But this was one of those times where both my friend and I just were like, oh, it's fine. You know, it's not. I didn't have any feeling that it was gonna be a problem. Um so yeah. So when I we got back actually that next night, um, Oliver was pretty much wigging out, and he's never done that before. He howls, he talks, um, but he was literally like shaking his ears and running around howling, and it was like 11 o'clock at night, and I'd already taken him out to go potty and did the whole thing. We were ready to go to bed. Right. And I so I thought, okay, he has to go to the bathroom again. And I took him back out, came back in, and I see a tick just crawling on his nose. Oh, wow. And I grabbed it and threw it down the toilet. Uh-huh. And then it was almost midnight, it was close to midnight. So I was at my friend's and we were getting ready for bed. And I thought, well, I better track, you know, if there's more. And um, I rolled him over. I literally like combed him, you know, as much as I could. I found another one on his belly. And this one, not they hadn't been latched on. The one on his nose was just walking around. It wasn't, it wasn't latched or anything. And this was over 24 hours later, um, after we went to the Metolius River. So, you know, immediately I started looking and I found another one, and um, it was just starting to get attached. So the only thing I had was a tweezers. And I knew enough, I had never found a tick on my dog's bodies for over six years. I've never found a tick on myself. Um, so I knew enough that you have to pull it out slowly. I knew that you don't want to leave the hood and all that stuff. Yes. But I was highly um disturbed. But I just thought, you know, it was like one of those moments where you have a child underneath a car and you hear of these miraculous moments. I know that sounds really funny, but it was that kind of moment. It was like this tick had all this power over me. I'm thinking, what in the world is happening? Okay, I've got to get this thing off my dog. And so I just took the tweezers and I just pulled it off gently. And it was really holding on. I mean, it was for dear life. And it hadn't, you know, it wasn't engorged, it hadn't embedded yet or anything like that. So I threw that one down the toilet. And um, I looked for more, couldn't find any more. I looked on Miko, my other dog, couldn't find any more. Looked on myself, you know. Um, and that was the first, those were the first two ticks. Okay, and that was just on the first day. Yeah, that was 24 hours later. So, how many ticks did you end up finding? So I found nine ticks in nine days. That's a lot. Yeah, and I went to the vet four times that week. So those first ticks that I found, they were the first two I found on Ollie, and you know, I was able to take them off with my own hands. Um the next ones, it wasn't again, it wasn't until almost another 12 hours later. And I literally scoured them, Britt. Like I scoured them and I couldn't find them. You know, it's hard, number one, with all the hair. Yes. And they have darker hair. Yeah. Um, and number two, it's really what I since found was it's really hard to find ticks because they hide, you know, and they're very tricky. And so I finally found um another one on Miko's ear, and that was literally like I want to say it was almost 72 hours later. It was on the back of his ear, and it was just starting to get engorged. Um, it wasn't, you know, there's different stages of this. It wasn't like a mummy stage yet, where they're kind of gray and their whole bottom part of their body is covered in a mummy situation where you can't see the legs. This one was highly disgusting. And it was like the head was embedded in him, uh-huh, in his ear, uh-huh. But you could still see the backside of his legs and everything, and they were moving around. And they were moving around. Yep. That's what they do. Am I grossing anybody out yet? That's what they do. Yeah, that's what was happening. So his legs were moving around, and I thought, well, I I am not equipped to use my tweezers and take this sucker out. So I immediately called the vet. And I found another one like that on Ollie's. So that was like four. So they took them off, and then um, and then it just kept happening. I was like every single morning waking up thinking, is there another one? I just kept feeling, do I need to check them again? And I kept getting a yes, and I just kept checking them three or four times a day, just looking, looking, looking. And and then another one was on Miko, and that was already engorged. And this was like over the course of nine days. So it just kept going. And I thought, this is so crazy. I thought, you know, everything that I heard about ticks is that they usually embed within the first 24 to 36 hours. But we were like on day six, you know what I mean, or seven. And literally it took nine days to find all of them. And by the time I found the rest of them, they were engorged. And luckily, the vet was able to pull all of it out the head, the body, everything.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

So I know that you you you you had four visits to the vet that week. I did. Okay. And can you kind of talk a little bit about your vet experience? Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

So because of you, thank you. Um, you said, you know, make sure to have them test the ticks. Yep. So again, you know, this was my first time with this, and I just assumed that they would send those ticks out to be tested. But because of your guidance, I asked them. They said it wasn't really standard procedure to send ticks out. So I asked them specifically if they could um please put them in vials. And I actually have them right here. I can show you. That would be lovely. Um these are my files. I've got four. Well, it named them. Have you really? Yeah. There's one still there.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Ew. Ew. And that's awesome. I so there's one there. You put the date on there.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

I put the date and I put Miko. Awesome. And then um so awful. Who knew? This one is like ew. I don't know. One of these are engorged. This one is also the date, and I put the name. And then we have this guy. There's two suckers in here. I mean, you can kind of see the blood. It's so gross. I mean, it's nasty. Thank you. We've had enough. Thank you very much. So, yeah. Wow. Um, they're making their debut now. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Oh my gosh, they're huge. Massive. But here's the thing, you know, I learned that there were different stages of engorgement. And but there's so much um, there's so much information that is contradictory that I found. Yes. And I mean, you knew I because I feel like you're an expert now. I've called you throughout this whole experience, and it was so nice to be able to have like a resource you there to be able to say, okay, now do this and da-da-da. And you know, there's so many variables around it, right? So I'm still in the phase of um waiting for that six weeks to get them tested to see. And I learned that even if the ticks do have do carry any infectious diseases, that it doesn't mean that it's going to be automatically transferred to the human or the dog. So that's good news. I want to be safe and I would like to do some prevention, but I'm kind of waiting it out. The doctor said just to wait and see how they're doing, you know, watch them. You want to watch for lethargy, you want to watch for are they eating? Um, do they have energy, things like that. And they seem to be fine, knock on wood. So, you know, I did ask the vet if any of these ticks do come back positive. Can we give them prevention ahead of time? You know, but they said that the antibiotics are very, very strong and they would prefer to get their blood tested first to see if they um, you know, got it. Okay. So that's what we're gonna do next.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Did you by any chance um when they were removing the ticks from the dogs, did you by any chance watch them on their method of tick removal? Because it is pretty controversial right now. There's a lot of different ideas on how to remove them appropriately. There are some really handy tools that people are um are are certainly uh selling out there as well. Yeah. So I'm just curious. And I'm also curious if they treated the wound itself where the bite mark was and what it was that they treated them with.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Yeah, it was a pretty gnarly smell. It was bright blue. And normally, Britt, I don't do any of that synthetic stuff. I'm not against it because, you know, thank God for Western medicine, but I've always been holistic my whole life, pretty much the last at least 40 years. And I normally will treat holistically. And I but I did everything they said because obviously I don't want my dogs to get Lyme. I don't want them to get any other diseases, and so yeah, so I just trusted them. I knew that they would do the best job that they could. Um, and they wouldn't let me, you know, I didn't go back, they they didn't do it in front of me. In fact, I didn't really want to be there. And I think that it was better for me and for them because they get distracted by me. And I think that they just followed, you know, the people that they knew because they've been going to this vet um for, you know, since they were little. So um, and they knew that something was up, obviously. But I just trusted them. So I said, okay, please get the whole thing out. And they did every single time they got the whole entire thing out.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Okay. Yeah. Good.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

I'm glad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Thank you. I'm very glad. Me too. What is um maybe like your biggest takeaway from this experience?

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Yeah, I think the biggest takeaway is that um one, to know with these warmer climates now with climate change and everything, and you know, we barely had any snow this winter. I understand it now. You know, I think we're kind of all thinking, oh, climate change. You know, we don't really understand the nitty-gritty unless you go through something like this and how it really impacts one segment. This is just one segment of how climate change can impact us as a humanity.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

And um, now I've got, you know, knowledge is power. So I feel like I'm going to be putting them on prevention ahead of time. There's so many different things to do. I'm not going to look at it like in general, this is Lyme season. You know, I'm going to be a little bit more proactive and cautious around how to take care of them and myself. Um, you know, I'm lucky I didn't get any ticks. I didn't spray myself that day, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Um, I wasn't in the water with them, but I was certainly right alongside and having fun with them, um, throwing sticks and the brush, you know, all the things.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Well, and I know that you crate your dogs at night. So if you were an owner who had the the fur babies sleeping with them, that could be a different scenario. Well, actually, I did. Oh. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Okay. Yeah, no, I want to. I know I'm going back to that. But Ollie sleeps with me. Uh-huh. And Miko sleeps. He's got his little cave in the closet. Um, but sometimes he comes up. So, you know what? That was a good point. I kept looking in my sheets and I kept washing my sheets and just scouring the mattress and everything. Because I thought, oh my gosh, they're bringing this into our home. You know? And the other piece was that I started learning in stages, you know. I didn't know that if a tick falls off and it's a female, guess what? It can lay a thousand eggs. Yes, it can.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

A thousand eggs.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

A thousand. What? And their little baby nymph, yes, right. So their little poppy seed size, yes, ticks. How do you see that?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yes. And and they carry disease. Right. Yes. Or can. I mean, I I think an an important um piece of this too is is for those listening that not all ticks carry disease, but it is critical that you get them tested in order to, you know, um be able to, you know, equip yourself with whether and whether or not you need uh antibiotics and a treatment protocol.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

So we're learning, huh? Yeah. To say the least. Okay. Knowing what you know now, you know, how has this experience changed your routine for not only yourself, but your fur babies? Yeah, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

I think knowing what I know now, um, I'm gonna buy stock in Wonderside spray. I'm not kidding. Like that stuff is gold. Um, and I'm gonna show you the products in a minute, but basically, yard spray. Yep. Okay, you spray the periphery of the grass. You can spray it around your house. It actually also keeps ants out, I understand. So that's kind of cool. Yep. Because it's I've got a lot of ants. Ant season little baby sugar ants. Um, and simperico trio, which is you can get brevecta, which is like every, I think it's called brevecta, but it's every three months, which is a little bit stronger. I don't do that one. I do um simperico trio, which is a one-month amount, and it's still just as strong. It's also for heartworm and um ticks and fleas. And I'll talk a little bit more about that. And then there's this really cool tick mitt that I'm so excited about because I wish that I had had that. Because I understand this young girl who had Lyme and she grew up and she created this mitt. And um, I just recently learned about it, so I'm really excited about it. But you just kind of, you know, it velcro's, I guess tick velcro to from the hair, and you can use it right when you come out from a hike and stuff like that. So, so before it actually touches on, which is brilliant. So I'm gonna be doing that, and yeah. Awesome. Yeah, lots of lots of good things. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Ready to see the products?

SPEAKER_02 21:06

I sure am. Okay, let's do it. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

So, can you walk us through the products that you use and why you choose the ones that you do choose?

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Yeah, absolutely. So I love this product. I have tried so many products, and this is called by a company called Wonderside, and it's fantastic. I mean, honestly, people just use this without synthetics. I happen to use both. I use the Simperico Trio on my dogs, which is I call that a synthetic drug. But um, I do that because it will kill the tick on contact. And it doesn't mean that it won't bite them because it will. And sometimes it can start to engorge a little bit, but then it kills it. Awesome. Okay. So that's why I think that's really, really important, especially with high tick season. But I also, in addition, Use this Wonderside spray. And you can get this in lots of different scents. I like the lemongrass scents because it's kind of like perfume for your dogs. I put on, I'm like, we're gonna put on your cologne now. Um, but I love it, and um, it's not too overpowering because you know how essential oils can be a little bit overpowering. This this is a fantastic product. They have this, which is um for the yard, and you just hook this thing up to the hose and then you spray the periphery of your yard. Nice. And you can also spray the outside of your house because apparently this keeps ants out too. So you get two and one. Nice. Um, I also bought this, which is basically the same one, and um, I just fill it up and I take this little guy to the all the all the heights we do. And it's great because you can put it in your backpack, it's just this little one, and so I can fill it up, same exact formula, and I'll show you um how to do it with the animals. It's there's this particular way you want to do it because you want to make sure that you're spraying their ankles and around the bottom part of what I call their socks. Um, and you also want to get their neckline, which is another common spot that ticks will um get attracted to. You also want to get kind of like I spray it on my hands, and then I'll do this under their eyes because one of the ticks that I found that was pretty deep embedded, and I did not see it was underneath Ollie's eye. And it was pretty close underneath. And because the hair was going this way, I couldn't see it. And I just, you know, when I found that out, I was pushing the hair the other direction than I set, I saw that that little critter's, you know, back legs out. And so that they had to sort of cut out, and that was a little alarming because they can get around the eyes and a lot of and they can also go into the mouth. I've seen ticks, it's so gross, but I've seen ticks inside of their gums before, not of my dogs, but that's where they can hide. So you want to do it around their mouth, and then um, you know, just their underside, their belly, and their bum. And I'll show you how to do that. Do they handle the scents okay? Yeah, they're fine. I mean, these scents are made for dogs, so they're totally fine with the scents. At first, you know, it was a little like, are they gonna do it? And yeah, they just let me. And then you also spray your own self because you can use that spray on yourself. So I spray my ankles, I spray my boots, you know, like around my boot area. Um, I'll kind of just kind of do this in the air and then around my head, you know, because and then sometimes I reapply too if I'm feeling a little wigged out, like it's a hot day, you know. I just kind of want to get it on me.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

So yeah. So since your experience in March in Central Oregon, obviously you are much more tick literate, tick literate, and I would imagine that your um tick prevention looks much different than prior to your experience.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

It really does. In fact, you turned me on to this mitt. Look at this thing. This is amazing, you guys. Um, it's called Tick Mitt, and this young girl created it because she had severe Lyme um when she was little, and so she wanted to do something to give it to give back, and she created this mitt, which is amazing. And we'll put the um information, right? Yep. But you're the one that turned me on to this, and this basically velcro's the tick. Yep. Umly loose ticks, only loose ticks. So you want to do this every single time you bring your dog out from a hike or outside, and then what? You can put it into this little launder bag. Laundry bag. And then you want to put it in the dryer for at least 10 minutes or more. Okay, and then it kills anything that's in there. Yep. So I mean, I've seen people just put this on their hand and then they just kind of like brush their dog's hair on the outside, and it literally will velcro the loose ticks onto it. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

And I think it's important to remember too, just that this is loose ticks only. People still need to then actually do an actual tick check. So um, this is for the loose ones only.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Yeah, and it's probably best to do this right after you hike.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

It is, it is. Um, definitely within two hours for sure, but right after you hike is is most ideal. And then the nice thing is too, is it's reusable. So oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Yeah, I also have this flea and tick shampoo, so sometimes after a hike, I will wash them with this. Nice. Yeah. Okay, ready to see me go? Yep. So this is how you spray.

unknown 26:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

So what you're gonna do, I'm not gonna spray it right now, but you're just gonna basically spray around the neck. Okay. And then what you wanna do is you wanna pull the hair like this in the opposite direction so that it actually will get into more of the skin. And then we're gonna spray some on our hands. Okay, you can sit now. Sit. Sit.

unknown 27:17

Good job.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Stay there. You're gonna spray some on the hands. You wanna lay down now? You want to scratch my belly? Okay, and then what we're gonna do is you're gonna spray it on your hands a little bit like this, and you'll just kind of wipe the ear. And you're gonna wipe the nose like that, and you're gonna go around their snout, and then like right here by the mouth, and then do a little sweep underneath the eyes. I don't know if you can see, but that's where the tick was. Right here. And I didn't see it, and that sucker was there like on day eight, you guys. Wow, it was day eight. And so it was very deep in the eyes. Couldn't see it because you know they had to cut that out, but see how this hair is all covered. So and then what you also want to do is you want to do their paws. So I spray it all the way up his socks, and then I'll take my hands, and I'll literally, again, you wanna go in the opposite direction, and you wanna do it back here too. Just kind of get it in there. Same thing, boom, boom, boom. And the last thing are we gonna show our cute little bum? Yeah. Okay, let's show everybody. Here we go. Let's turn it around. And then you also spray it. So you were gonna spray it. And then go like that. And I just kind of do that. And then spray it on my hands, and I go all the way like that. And then I also do the belly. So I just put it right on the belly. And that's it. That's it, that's all done.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

Thank you so much for joining us today. I can't thank you enough. I know that this is gonna help so many people on keeping themselves safe and their fur babies. Thank you so much for tuning in to What the Morgux Podcast. I'm beyond grateful that you're here, and thank you so much for being a part of the special community. To learn more, you can visit us at whatthemorgues.com and you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram at WhatThemorgues Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in.